


The Stark Truth

by sharpiesgal (TigerLily)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marvel Avengers Fusion, F/M, Multi, Same-Sex Marriage, Threesome - M/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-15
Updated: 2014-09-15
Packaged: 2018-02-17 12:45:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2310092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TigerLily/pseuds/sharpiesgal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Phil Coulson and his lovers, Clint Barton and Tony Stark, discuss their relationship and the possibility of getting married as they work on the final issue of <i>The Stark Truth</i>, the news magazine that Tony's father established in the late 40's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stark Truth

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fionhen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fionhen/gifts).



> An AU inspired by the events taking place in the movie "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" starring Ben Stiller. I hope my person enjoys it.

“Phil, babe,” Justin Hammer purred as he strolled into Phil Coulson’s office. “Do you have any ideas for our final issue?”

Phil bit back a typical sarcastic response since he knew it would go over Hammer’s head. The man was the most obtuse person he had ever had the displeasure of working with. He was tired and not in the mood to put up with anymore bullshit that came spewing out of the mouths of the new owners of _The Stark Truth_. He had been on the front lines of modern photo journalism long before Justin Hammer and Aldrich Killian could form sentences, and their buying out of one the most respected news magazines in the world just chapped his ass.

He leaned back in his chair with a world weary sigh. Being the managing editor caused him to keep unusual hours and at that moment he didn’t want to be in the office on a weekend.

For the first time in months he and his lovers were not only on the same continent, but were in the same city. He badly missed them when they were away on assignment even though they Skyped on a daily basis. It just wasn’t the same as being home with them wrapped firmly around him in their king size bed.

“I have a few ideas that I’m working on,” he smoothly replied as he pushed the image of him and his lovers cuddling to the back of his mind. “I’ll have something concrete for you by the end of the day.”

“Awesome!” Justin exclaimed in mock interest. “I’ll let Killian know.” He turned on his heel and returned to the boardroom where he and Killian had set up shop.

“You do that,” Phil murmured as he returned his attention to the stack of photographs on his desk. He needed to pick one for the cover of the final issue.

*&*

“Hey, Phil,” Pepper Potts said as she entered his office hours later breaking into his thoughts.

“Hmmm....”

“If you want to go home and be with your men, then I can stay and take care of the Bobbsey Twins,” she offered even though her weekend plans would probably be shot to hell.

“I do,” Phil admitted as he sat forward, removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. He had worked past lunch and was starving, which coupled with eye strain and stress had given him the beginnings of a rather nasty headache. “But, I can’t make you and Happy suffer like that.”

“You’re more afraid that we’ll kill them and put their bodies on public display like the Italians did with Mussolini,” Pepper retorted with rueful grin.

“Actually, I would pay to see that,” Phil lightly quipped.

“So would we,” Tony said for him and Clint as he sauntered into Phil’s office with Clint following close behind. “Now, come along and let Pepper do her job.”

Clint and Pepper exchanged knowing looks behind Tony’s back and waited for the inevitable response from Phil.

“I’m not certain what annoys me the most at this moment, the Bobbsey Twins or you trying to manage me,” Phil retorted as he slipped his glasses on and shot Tony a dirty look over the rims.

“I do it out of love,” Tony retorted causing Clint to snort in derision.

“You do it because you haven’t been laid in a few hours,” Clint contributed which caused Pepper to roll her eyes and to mutter; “I didn’t need to know that.”

“Fucking asshole,” Tony grumbled and punched Clint in the chest.

“Just saying,” Clint retorted and punched Tony back.

“Children,” Phil sighed and briefly considered tazing them so he could get some work done.

“On that note, I’m going to go see what damage has been wrought in the main boardroom by those nitwits,” Pepper tossed over her shoulder and left.

“I can’t leave with those two idiots running around while we work on putting out the last issue of _The Stark Truth_ ,” Phil said with a hint of steely determination in his voice. “You can stay and help.”

“Or go home and have wild, kinky sex without you,” Tony volunteered with a smirk.

“Tony,” Clint sighed. He got tired of Tony’s one track mind at times and wished he was a little more focused on life outside of their bedroom.

Tony bit back a snarky retort. There was a time to be snarky and a time to be serious, and while many folks believed that he didn’t know the difference, he actually did. “What do you need help with?”

“At this point everything,” Phil admitted. “I want this to be the best issue ever, but I have no idea where to start to achieve that lofty goal.”

*&*

“I think we need to call it quits for the day,” Clint suggested after removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose in a poor attempt to ease his throbbing headache. He had spent the better part of the last five hours pouring over back issues of _The Stark Truth_ looking for ideas for the final issue. “I’m too tired to brainstorm and Tony is about to fall asleep in the pizza.”

“Am not,” Tony argued as he pushed the pizza box out of the way so he could rest his head on the table. He was exhausted having not slept on the flight from Dubai.

“I need time away so I can decompress and maybe come up with an idea that will keep the Tweedles off my back,” Phil remarked with a grimace as he stood and stretched the kinks out of his back.

“Let’s go home and get some sleep,” Clint suggested with a yawn. “I’m certain Pepper has the Tweedles well in hand and you won’t have to deal with them until tomorrow.”

“God, I hope so,” Phil sighed. He slipped on his suit jacket and grabbed his briefcase while watching Clint poked and prodded Tony until the other man stood up and took a swat at him which Clint deftly avoided.

“Asshole,” Tony muttered, but followed Clint from the office while Phil locked it up for the night.

*&*

“I got it!” Tony declared after a few hours of sleep.

“Got what?” Clint asked returning from the kitchen with a late night snack for the three of them, which he sat on the night stand before returning to their bed.

“The topic that will send Dad’s news rag off with a bang.”

“And that is?” Phil inquired as he sat up and leaned against the headboard. His curiosity was piqued to say the least.

“Same sex marriage.”

“That might work,” Clint drawled in a poor attempt of playing the devil’s advocate knowing it would irk Tony, but he couldn’t help himself because he was still uncertain about his place in their relationship even after being together for almost five years.

“Might?!” Tony snapped ready to fight to the death to defend his idea. It wasn’t often that he showed interest in social problems, but when he did he was a force to be reckoned with. “It might?!”

“It’s a sensitive topic and if not handled correctly, it could blow up in our faces,” Phil quietly interjected in an attempt to keep his lovers from falling into a heated argument where feelings would get hurt and they would end up sleeping separately until cooler heads prevailed.

“I know,” Tony reluctantly admitted. Phil was correct about the topic being sensitive. He and Clint had gotten into a heated discussion about it days earlier. “But, it’s very important to me.”

“To us all,” Phil said and Clint nodded his head in silent agreement.

Tony rubbed his hands over his face as he fought to stuff his anger back in its box. Getting mad and arguing wouldn’t get him very far with his lovers since they knew him too well. “Okay, how about this,” he began once more focused on the problem at hand. “With the passage of the same sex marriage act in Albany, why don’t we gather together ten same sex couples and do an expose on their journey to marriage equality? We wouldn’t be stepping on too many toes and we would be putting a face on the marriage equality issue.”

“Alright,” Phil said humoring Tony. “Who would are ten couples be?”

“Tasha and Peggy for one,” Tony answered. “Clint?”

“Let me make a few phone calls,” Clint said before grabbing his cell off the night stand, rolling off the bed and walking out of the room.

“Do I want to know what that’s all about?” Phil gently inquired not liking it when Clint hid from them.

“I want us to get married and he’s still skittish about the idea,” Tony quietly explained. “I may have pushed a little too hard this time.”

“I want us to get married as well, but Clint needs to be completely on board with the idea before we do. I love you both equally. I don’t want either one of you feeling like you are being left out.”

“We love you and each other, and we know what we have requires work and a fine balancing act; but I believe we can do this.”

“Your belief in the improbable,” Phil muttered. “Is truly amazing.” He pulled Tony close and gave him a soft kiss to ease the sting of his comment.

“Love you too, buttercup,” Tony retorted once the kiss ended.

*&*

“We love you,” Phil said as he walked into the living room and joined Clint at the window that overlooked the Manhattan skyline. Tony had left them to go work in the study not wanting to further disturb them with his brainstorming, and give Phil a chance to talk to Clint one on one.

“I know,” Clint softly replied not bothering to look at Phil. “And some days that is enough and other days it is not.”

“So what can we do to help?”

“What you have been doing all along.”

“You mean not calling you on your bullshit and ignoring your insecurities?”

“That’s harsh, Phil,” Clint muttered even though he knew it was the truth.

“The truth is always painful,” Phil remarked with a sad smile. “So, I ask you again, what can we do to ease your insecurities?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Clint admitted with a shrug before wrapping his arms around himself as he pulled inside himself like the armadillo he had seen at a zoo when he was a kid in foster care.

“Don’t do that,” Phil whispered in Clint’s ear as he wrapped himself around the other man. “Don’t hide from us. We want to know whatever it is your feeling, so please talk to us and we can work things out.”

“I’m not so sure Tony feels that way.”

“Of course I do, bird brain,” Tony muttered as he joined them plastering himself to Clint’s front. “I may not say it a lot, but I do love you and my life would not be complete without you in it.”

“Romantic sap,” Clint murmured happy to be in his lovers’ embrace.

“What can I say?” Tony light quipped. “I learned from the best.”

“I’m going to tell Pepper you said that about her,” Phil said knowing exactly what Tony meant, but knowing they needed some levity before things got too serious.

“Go ahead,” Tony dared. “She’ll take her ire out on the Tweedles.”

“Wonder how much I could get for those pictures?” Clint asked with a soft chuckle.

“Enough for a nice romantic vacation on the Italian Riviera,” Tony hopefully replied.

“If we’re getting married,” Clint stipulated. “You are paying for the honeymoon.”

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Tony said. “Phil?”

“I guess we’re getting married,” Phil said with a hint of exasperated finality that set them all to laughing.

*&*

Epilogue

Tony strolled into the small café in Paris he and his husbands had taken to visiting daily as they adjusted to married life and early retirement. In his hands was a copy of the final issue of _The Stark Truth_. “Look what came in the mail today,” he said as he settled onto a rickety iron chair handing Phil the magazine before trying to steal Clint’s coffee cup.

Clint let him have the cup more interested in the magazine than playing with Tony. They had worked hard on that final issue and he wanted to see the fruit that hard labor had produced.

Phil handed the magazine to Clint and smiled as his lover gazed in awe at the front cover. 

It was a picture of them on their wedding day as they had left the Manhattan courthouse followed by several other couples, both straight and gay, as they had made their way toward their wedding reception. It was the happiest day of his life.

Tony smiled at his husbands while biting back a smartass “I told you so” since he was already in the doghouse with them for not keeping up with his assigned set of chores at the villa they were renovating. “So this is cause for celebration, right?”

“What do you have in mind?” Phil asked mindful of the fact that Tony had a bad habit of flaunting his wealth when in a good mood.

“Something quiet and simple,” Tony answered. “Just us, a nice dinner, a late evening stroll and some slow passionate love making.”

“Best idea I’ve heard in awhile,” Clint said before leaning across the table and gently kissing Tony.

“Yes, it is,” Phil agreed and soon found himself at the villa lost in a haze of passion that he never wanted to end.


End file.
